Learn
Bring designs from PDF, Illustrator & Photoshop
That flyer a client sent as a PDF, the old .ai logo from an agency, the PSD your last designer left behind: you don't have to rebuild any of it. Popcorn Editor opens PDF, Illustrator, SVG and Photoshop files as real, editable designs, so you can update the text, fix the colors and export a print-ready file in minutes.
Stop redrawing artwork you already have
Re-creating an existing design by eye is slow and error-prone. You squint at a screenshot, guess the font, sample colors off a JPEG, and still end up with something slightly off.
Importing skips all of that. The file's actual text, vector shapes and images come across as individual objects on the Canvas, so a price change or a new date is a ten-second edit instead of an afternoon.
Import a file
You'll go from a file on disk to an open, editable document in three steps.
- In the editor, open the File menu and choose Import file….
- Pick a .pdf, .ai, .svg or .psd file. A progress dialog shows each page converting; multi-page PDFs display Page 1 of 4 style progress.
- Review the import report, then click Open as new document.
The report shows how many Pages, Objects and Images were created, plus a Conversion notes list describing anything that didn't translate perfectly. If the file converted cleanly, the dialog says so and you can open it straight away.
Note: Import always creates a new document, so your current design is never touched. Files can be up to 300 MB and up to 200 pages.
What each format brings across
Every format keeps as much live and editable as possible, and the import report tells you exactly where it had to compromise.
| Format | What stays editable | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| Text, vector shapes, images, multiple pages | Bleed settings and spot colors import too; spot colors become document swatches | |
| Illustrator (.ai) | Same as PDF | Imported through the file's PDF-compatible contents; some Illustrator-only features may be simplified |
| SVG | Vector paths, text, gradients | Great for logos and icons; filters and masks are not supported and are removed |
| Photoshop (.psd) | Layers, text layers, shape layers, images | Adjustment layers are skipped; layer masks are baked into pixels; smart objects import as flattened images |
A few format-specific notes worth knowing before you start:
- Legacy .ai files saved without PDF-compatible content can't be read. Re-save them in Illustrator with "Create PDF Compatible File" enabled, or export a PDF and import that.
- EPS and InDesign files can't be opened directly. Save the EPS as a PDF from any vector editor, or export the InDesign document as PDF, then import the PDF.
- Very complex pages (tens of thousands of drawing operations) are imported as a flattened image rather than failing, and the Conversion notes tell you which page.
Read the Conversion notes honestly
The goal is knowing exactly what changed, not pretending nothing did.
Each note names the object or layer involved and what happened to it. The most common ones:
- Font substituted. A font in the file isn't available, so a replacement was used. The note names both fonts, so you can pick a better match in the Font Book.
- Blend mode not supported. The affected object falls back to normal blending; check whether the visual effect still reads correctly.
- Text rasterized (PSD). A text layer that couldn't be converted becomes an image. It still looks right, but you'll retype it to edit it.
- Colors converted. Some colors may shift slightly from the original; a note flags the affected page.
For a lossy Photoshop conversion, the report also offers Re-import flattened (exact appearance). That trades editability for pixel-perfect fidelity: you get one flattened image that matches Photoshop exactly. Use it when the file is finished artwork you only need to place, not edit.
Tip: Skim the notes before clicking Open as new document. Thirty seconds here tells you exactly which spots to check on the Canvas.
Make it print-ready
An imported design inherits whatever the source file had, which is often screen-oriented. Three quick checks bring it up to print standard.
- Fonts. Select any substituted text and confirm the replacement, or choose a closer match. See fonts and the Font Book.
- Color mode. If the design is headed to a printer, switch the document to CMYK so you soft-proof real ink colors on screen. The RGB vs CMYK guide explains when and why.
- Bleed. PDFs bring their bleed settings along (the notes flag it if pages disagreed), but screen files like PSDs usually have none. Add bleed and extend backgrounds past the trim; bleed and safe margins walks through it.
Run the preflight checklist before export and you're done.
The round-trip trick: PDFs that reopen fully editable
Here's the part that changes how you work with clients. When you export a PDF from Popcorn Editor, the export dialog has an Include editable source option. It embeds your actual document inside the PDF, so importing that PDF back restores the complete, fully editable design: live text, real layers, named swatches, everything.
That means the proof you email a client doubles as your working file. When they reply with "can you change the date?", you import their PDF and edit, no hunting for the original.
When you import such a PDF, a Conversion note tells you the original document was restored. If you'd rather convert the raw PDF contents instead (say, someone annotated the PDF in another tool), click Import PDF as-is in the report.
Note: Include editable source isn't available with PDF/X output, because the PDF/X standard doesn't allow embedded files. Keep an editable copy when you deliver PDF/X.
Where to go next
You've got the artwork in; now get it out the door. See what "print-ready" really means to sanity-check the file, then follow export a print-ready PDF to deliver something your printer accepts on the first try. For the full reference on supported formats and limits, see importing files.